Astheglobalfinancialcrisishits-优题课

Shane Thomas is a 10-year-old pianist from England. He’s being called the next Mozart because of his amazing abilities.
He has only been having piano lessons for four months, and practices four hours a week, but he has already played difficult classical pieces. He was just seven when he sat down at the piano, and could play at once. He also says he never gets nervous.
When Shane was three years old, he said that he could play the piano, but nobody took him seriously. At school, he could listen to the teacher and do his work while composing (作曲) in his head. Shame remembers all the melodies（旋律）,and when he gets home he plays them on the piano, while his father records them. Shane loves playing the piano, and when he grows up he wants to be a composer.
His tutor, Richard Goffin-Lecar, says he is like Amadeus Mozart, who lived during the 18^th century in Salzburg, Austria, and was one of the most famous composers ever. Mr. Goffin-lecar says, “I don’t teach Shane very much. I just give him directions, then sit back and watch.”
His father, a single parent with two other children, says that although he has little money, he wants to send Shane to a good music school. “I’m a single father, but I have this gifted child. I don’t have much money, but I want to give him the best teachers, and also take him into a studio to record.”
56. When did Shane tell others that he could play the piano?
A. At age three. B. At age ten. C. At age seven. D. At age four.
57. Which of the following is TRUE about Shane?
A. He feels nervous while playing the piano
B. He can compose in his head while doing his work.
C. He wants to be a piano tutor when he grows up.
D. He doesn’t like to listen to the teacher at school.
58. What do we learn about Shane’s father?
A. He also plays the piano well.
B. He’s a single father with two children.
C. He believes in Shane’s talent for music and will support him.
D. Not having enough money, he will ask the teachers for help

Driving while talking on a hand-held mobile phone has long been considered a danger. But even drivers who use hands free devices are a nuisance – because they are slowing everyone else down, according to a study.
David Strayer, a psychology professor in Utah University’s traffic lab, conducted a study involving 36 university students driving on motorways. Each used a hands free phone for half the trip but not for the other half. The students were told to obey posted speed limits and use turn signals but the rest of the driving decisions were up to them . What Strayer found is that when the drivers were distracted（使分心）by a phone conversation , they made fewer lane（车道） changes, drove slower and took longer to get where they were going. Fellow researcher Professor Peter Martin, who teaches civil and environmental engineering at Utat University, said,“Ordinarily a slower driver should be safer ， but that’s not the case when people are talking on a cell phone.”
In general , drivers who used mobile phones while driving took three percent longer to drive along the same high-density route than drivers who didn’t. When stuck behind a dawdling(磨蹭的) driver , it took them between 25 and 50 seconds longer to switch to an open lane to overtake. Those delays can add up when you consider studies that suggest as many as 10 percent of US drivers are using a cell phone at any one time. And delays in traffic streams of very small amounts can grow into massively when drivers are crossing a highway.” Our next step is to use computer models to determine just how much those delays are costing drivers in time and in extra fuel costs,” Martrin said.
63. What does the underlined word in the first paragraph mean?
A. A person who is a volunteer. B. A person who breaks the traffic law
C. A person who is annoyed by others. D. A person who causes trouble
64. Which of the following is TRUE , according to Martin?
A. The more slowly a person drove, the safer he was.
B. Measures should be taken to stop using mobile phones.
C. Drivers using hand-held phones had less effect on traffic than those using hands free phones
D. Driving while using mobile phones could cost drivers time and money.
65. The passage is mainly about .
A. traffic conditions in rush hours
B. the use of mobile phones in the USA
C. using hands free devices behind the wheel
D. a comparison between hand-held phones and hands free ones

There are robots all around us. Some do very complicated jobs like flying airplanes and driving subway trains. And some do one simple job. When an automatic washing machine is switched on , water pours in. The machine waits until the water is warm enough for washing clothes. It does this by “feedback(反馈)” . Information about what is happening is feedback into the robot to tell what to do next. Our eyes, ears and other senses are our feedback. They tell us what is going on around us . So robots are like human beings in two ways.
They work and they have feedback.
In some ways robots are better than human beings. They work quickly and do not make mistakes. They do not get bored doing the same job over and over again. And they never get tired. So robots are very useful in factories. They can be taught to do many different jobs. First their electronic brain must be shown how the job is done, A person moves the robot’s “arms” and “hands” through each part of the job.
The most intelligent robots can move and see. Their eyes are cameras. Their fingers can feel shapes and sizes of the objects. These robots have computer brains linked to their eyes and fingers, which control their actions. The expensive robots are used in scientific research. They do such jobs as handling radioactive materials.
59. In this passage the author tells us that.
A. robots are very popular B. there are various kinds of robots
C. we see robots only at certain times D. robots can be easily controlled
60. What does the author seem to inform you about robots?
A. They should be greatly improved
B. They will probably take over in the future
C. They are very hopeful and useful to humans
D. They are machines that break down a lot
61. The author says that in industry.
A. robots break down a lot B. robots can do many jobs
C. robots only get in the wayD. robots sometimes cause troubles
62. The fact that a robot never gets bored doing the same job means that .
A. it is very much like human beings B. it can do boring jobs for people
C. it will never bore people D. it will work much better than human beings

I was born in Mississippi in the 1960s. My disabilities were caused by lack of oxygen to my brain when I was a five-year-old boy. I grew up knowing I was different. The first time I felt hurt and left out was in Grade Five. The other fourth and fifth graders played together in gym class, while I was put in the second grade gym class. One day, a famous football player visited the fourth and fifth grade P.E. class. All the kids got his autograph except me because I was with the second graders playing games. Mom called the school to tell them it wasn’t fair, but the school scolded me for complaining too much.
In the 1980s, when my mom was giving birth to my sister, she had made a major stroke（中风）and died. My dad became even more distant. I was very sad and began using alcohol to ease the pain.
Dad got remarried in 1985. Everyone went to his wedding except me; he told me to stay at home and watch the house. When my high school ball came around, I wanted to go but wasn’t allowed. When I graduated, my dad and step-mom refused to hold a party for me. They put me in a group home after graduation.
My life changed when I became a local leader of the National Self-advocacy（自我辩护）Group. At first, I thought the group wasn’t for me, until I found out it was all about empowerment（授权）! My goal is to be the voice for people who haven’t been heard and to empower them. Many families, like mine, don’t believe their disabled families have a voice or mind of their own.
Looking back over my 16 years of leadership experience, I ’m proud that I ’ve helped disabled people. They should be encouraged to never give up and to follow their own path.
56. When the writer was in the fifth grade, he.
A. was hurt by his classmates in school
B. felt left out for the first time in his life
C. studied with the second graders
D. often complained about the school
57. According to the passage, the writer .
A. was born disabled B. didn’t study well at school
C. was happy in his childhood D. didn’t get along well with his father
58. From the passage we can know that the National Self-advocacy Group is .
A. an organization that gives disabled people help
B. a club organized completely by disabled people
C. a hospital which only treats people with disabilities
D. a school that teaches parents how to deal with their disabled kids

E
Teenagers who drink alcohol are at higher risk of becoming victims of violence, a Cardiff University study has found.
A team from the School of Dentistry' s Violence Research Group studied drinking habits in
children aged | 1-16 in England. They found not only a link between drink and violence but also
that children who drank were more likely to be hit, even if they weren' t violent themselves.
The researchers are now calling for measures to prevent alcohol misuse to reduce injury
risk. Current policy focuses on reducing aggression but this research shows that there should be
equal effort to reduce victimization(受害).
More than 4,000 children were surveyed at 13 schools at four local authorities in the North, the Midlands, London, and the South. The study found that 25% of 1 l-year-olds were drinking
monthly and 3.6% daily, with 12.8% admitting to getting drunk 3 to 5 times a year. By the age
of 16, 40% were drinking weekly and 6.2% were drinking every day. The research also showed
22.6% of 16-year-olds were getting drunk more than 21 times a year.
The study, which has just been published in the Journal of Adolescence, found a strong
link between frequency of drinking and frequency of hitting other people.
However, children who reported drinking monthly were also three times more likely to be
hit. Adolescents(青少年) who drank but didn't get into fights were more likely to be hit than
those who did fight.
Professor Jonathan Shepherd, who led the research, said a lot of previous alcohol-related
violence work had focused on the offenders rather than the victims. His team is calling for more pre-vention work from parents and teachers in the first two years of secondary school by taking advantage of the "teachable moment", that is, immediately after a student has missed school because of drunkenness.
Previous work by Professor Jonathan Shepherd has shown drinkers may be more at risk of vio-lence because of reduced physical co-ordinatlon ( 配合), poor decision-making in threatening situa-tions and isolation while out late at night.
He said,"This new study seems to be the first to show a direct link between alcohol misuses and victimization. There now needs to be much more effort put into reducing alcohol misuse in order to reduce injury. "
58. The underlined word "aggression" in the third paragraph probably means_____
A. violence B. sad feelings C. bad manners D. drunkenness
59. Drinkers may be more at risk of violence because of all the following EXCEPT __
A. reduced the physical co-ordination
B. isolation while out late at night
C. a higher frequency of hitting other people
D. poor decision-making in threatening situations
60. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to Professor Shepherd' s research?
A. The frequency of children getting drunk increases with age.
B. His previous alcohol-related violence work had focused on the offendersl
C. Some children missed school because of drunkenness.
D. This new study shows a direct link between alcohol misuse and victimization.